QR Codes and the Rebirth of Mix Tapes
Posted on by Timothy Boyle
For those of a certain age you will remember the days of creating mix tapes (or CD’s), often times to be given to your friends, loved ones, or some high school crush. It was the time, effort and thought put into it that made it a special gift. With the invention of the mp3 however, such thoughtful gifts are rarely given anymore (how many people even own a tape player these days?). A company out of UK called ‘Stupid’ looked to reignite the mixed tape from our childhood, but did so using a much newer technology.
What Stupid set out to accomplish was find a way to bring this thoughtful gift back from the grave, and they did so using QR codes and greeting cards.
Using QR Codes to Recreate the Mixed Tape Experience
How it works is they designed various greeting cards with creatively designed QR codes on the front for various types of people/moments. Upon scanning the QR code the recipient is taken to the ‘Spotify’ app where a playlist—hopefully painstakingly created by the giver to capture the recipient’s humanity by song, or something like that—awaits, to be listened to as many times as he/she may choose. Keep the card and the recipient can forever scan the QR codes and be taken to the thoughtful playlist created for the special occasion.
Assuming this creative use of QR codes eventually takes off and people begin to see its fantastic possibilities, the art of the mixed tape and its romantic gesture may soon be back in the world of popular culture. And really what would be better than that?
This is just one more example of a million amazing uses people have found for QR codes. If you have other creative examples you find particularly interesting we would love to hear about them in the comment section below! Maybe I will even write a blog post about it if it intrigues me enough.
